We Ask ESB for Update on Long Term Charger Issues – No Good News

On 16th June we emailed ESB to ask them for updates on several CPs that have been down for extended time.

RC16 Sprucefield CHAdeMO down since 9th June

SC60 Trolans Ballymoney – long-term (537 days)

SC45 Lisburn (Benson St) – 1 side down long-term (489 days)

SC19 Adelaide Street – 1 side down long-term (290 days)

SC127 Stormont Hotel – 2 sides, long-term (147 days)

SC75 Rushmere – 1 side down (12 days)

ESB replied on 28th June with the following message (emphasis ours)…

Thank you for your email and I apologise for the delay in responding to you with the update below.

RC16 Sprucefield CHAdeMO – Our engineers visited this rapid charger on June 16th and according to our CPMS system, it has had recent ongoing usage on all connectors since then. Do let us know if drivers have any further issues with the DC CHAdeMO connector.

SC19 Adelaide Street and SC127 Stormont Hotel – We plan to replace the charge points at Adelaide Street and Stormont Hotel with new AC charge point models, which will help to bolster the service in Belfast. At present we do not have a definite timeline for the replacement of these units, but will keep you updated.

SC45 Lisburn (Benson St) – We are aware that one socket at this charge post is not working and despite a number of visits by our engineers, they have been unable to fix it.

This is also the case with SC75 Rushmere. Both of these charge points are no longer supported by the manufacturer and it can be difficult to source parts for them.

SC60 Trolans Ballymoney – Despite visiting this charge point on a number of occasions, our engineers have been unable to rectify the fault at this unit. It is an early charge point model and it can be difficult to source parts for it. We are working to find a longer term solution. At present the chargers at Townhead Street and the Leisure Centre on Garryduff Road in Ballymoney are fully operational and available to use.

So unfortunately in 5 out of the 6 examples we sent the ESB there’s no firm information for a fix. We replied to ESB on the 28th June (and again on the 10th July) asking for firm fix dates. To date we’ve received no response.

While we appreciate ESB faces many difficulties, not least the continued lack of funding, we feel long-term outages with no firm dates for fixes are incredibly frustrating. This only helps to deter drivers from considering an EV, even the ones that probably don’t even need public chargers.

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2 Commentson "We Ask ESB for Update on Long Term Charger Issues – No Good News"

Have any of these now been updated? The Stormont hotel one is near to us and is still not working. There are two other chargers at Stormont hotel though they are now also not working. What is the best way to report broken chargers? Although from your article above there doesn’t seem to be much point in reporting as it doesn’t seem to lead to any action.

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